As the 2024 season neared its end, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted his decision to hand Sergio Perez an early contract extension in June “obviously didn’t work.”
Having been comprehensively beaten by team mate Max Verstappen for much of 2023, their third season alongside each other, Perez got his 2024 campaign off to a promising start. But his form nose-dived soon afterwards and Red Bull found themselves inundated with questions over whether they would do a U-turn over their decision to extend his contract until the end of 2026.
As the final race approached, Red Bull finally admitted his position would be reviewed after the end of the season. After he was blamelessly eliminated on the first lap of the season finale, Perez said they will discuss “what’s best for everyone going forward.”
After the season he’s had, it’s hard to imagine Red Bull continuing with him for another, let alone two. Here’s how bad it got for Perez in 2021.
One good quarter
Perez ended the season in such poor form it was easy to overlook the fact he made a respectable start to the championship. When Red Bull’s car was at its best he reeled off four podium finishes from the first five races, and completed one-twos for the team in three of those.
Six points in he lay second in the standings on 103 points. Incredibly, he scored less than half that – just 49 points – over the remaining three-quarters of the season.
One shocking third
Perez’s form over the final third of the year stood in sharpest contrast to the start of the season. From those eight rounds he took just nine points; Verstappen picked up 134 over the same period, out-scoring his team mate by a factor of almost 15.
During that time 11 other drivers scored more points than the driver of the second Red Bull, including the drivers from their closest rivals McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari. The others who claimed more points than Perez also included Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg (both Haas), Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon (both Alpine). Perez only picked up one point more than RB’s Yuki Tsunoda over this period.
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Widest gap in championship
While Verstappen clinched the drivers’ championship with two rounds to spare, Perez put a lock on eighth in the standings at the next round. That meant the pair ended the season seven places…
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